So we went to our second recheck of the week yesterday. Dr. Vadivel (the transplant nephrologist) had scheduled us to see the transplant surgeon, Dr. Gravetz, to have Andrew’s primary incision evaluated because it continues to weep a little bit.

Dr. Gravetz, who was obviously genetically designed to be a surgeon -his hands are incredible-, poked and prodded and found a large-ish subcutaneous pocket near the distal end of the primary incision. It was a fairly icky appointment because here’s this dude POKING BIG HUGE STERILE SWABS ALMOST 6″ UNDER ANDREW’S SKIN!!
In all actuality they were perfectly normally sized sterile swabs, but they were, in fact, more than 6″ long and they were disappearing under Andrew’s skin to a disturbing length. The backs of my knees are all sweaty again just thinking of it.
It’s just a seroma. That sort of serum weeping happens a lot when you have to cut through muscle and it’s a pain in the butt to have to deal with especially in a high motion area. Ideally we should be wrapping Andrew up with a pressure bandage over the area, but that’s not really practical considering the site.
Anyway, the surgeon packed the pocket with sterile wicking material -also an icky sort of thing (which I didn’t watch)- and told Andrew to remove the wicking material this morning. Which he did. Or at least I assume he did because if Andrew had had to have me watch or, *shudder* help, the backs of my knees would get all sorts of weird.

All of the ickiness aside, it was a fairly straightforward appointment. Andrew’s labs are fine and while his blood pressure and weight are fluctuating more than he’d like, everyone at the transplant center says he’s doing well.
And here’s the proof!
While Andrew still has to have two blood and urine panels done next week he’s only got one follow up appointment with an MD!
That sounds like progress.